PRIVILEGED INFORMATION and PAKISTANI POLITICIANS !
By : Admiral Afzal Tahir
1 Nov 2020 :
Information is the key to everything in human life and life of nations. With correct and timely information, individuals make decisions that impact their individual lives and nations make decisions that impact the entire country and its population. Information is so important that our Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) used it to assert his truthfulness to the residents of Makkah, when he asked if they would believe him if he informed them that there was an enemy army on the other side of the hill. It has become a cliché that this is the information age but contrarily information has always been key to human life in all ages and times. Without information there will be no trade, no agriculture, no personal safety, no business, no preparedness for calamities, in fact no gainful use of time by humans. Without information there will be total chaos in human society and life would become a meaningless use of one’s time and energy. It is because of this supreme importance of information that it has attained the category of warfare, termed as information warfare and further categorized as ‘misinformation’, ‘disinformation’, propaganda and some other categories. Information has also been categorized as ‘classified information’. ‘declassified information’ and ‘privileged information’. Nations conduct their business as well as pursue wars on the basis of these categories of information, but I want to dwell on the last category of information.
Privileged information is the one that becomes available to an individual being in a privileged position. There are two aspects to it. One, that privileged information has to be available to the privileged person to conduct his office in an efficient manner and two that it is a sacred trust never to be divulged without sufficient cause and since such information is relevant to the affairs of the state, divulgence of such information has to be for a national cause. Protection of such information is so crucial that there is an ‘official secrets act’ that I had to sign as having read (and understood) at the beginning of every year during my entire service to the nation. I have never even contemplated on divulging this privileged information even a decade after my retirement because it is a sacred trust that I must take with me to my grave, for the good of the country alone. There are times in every privileged person’s life when frustration, disenchantment or disillusionment may lure one into disclosing such information but only the strength of character averts such a wrong to be committed. To illustrate, let me take the example of military establishment. It is the only facet of our national life wherein a selection is made amongst the contenders for higher promotion above the ‘major rank’. Those not selected are obviously disenchanted, but one would never hear of a Brigadier, for example (not promoted to major general) going public with the privileged information that he attained during his career. If, however, there were such an individual, he would be liable to be punished under the official secrets act.
Our elected representatives are privileged persons, because being members of the parliament and of various parliamentary committees, as ministers, as advisors and in various other capacities, they gain access to privileged information. Provision of such information is necessitated for smooth and efficient running of the government and state functions and must be considered a sacred trust of the nation. Over the last two years or so, politicians and wards of some politicians have been stating the obvious; we have secrets in our bosoms (hamaray seenay mein raaz hain). It is however not understood how the wards of politicians have claimed this possession and I am referring to MS. If her father let her in on the privileged information or caused such divulgence, it is a breach of trust but that is not the matter I want to discuss here.
I want to first say a little about what Ayaz Sadiq (the divulger) said. Mr. Ayaz! (your surname being too sanctimonious) you were holder of a privileged piece of information that was given to you as a member of parliament otherwise you would not have been allowed within a mile of that meeting. You divulged it in your, rather your disgraced political leader’s, frustration and disenchantment and that is failure of character and breech of trust. Your next claim of trembling legs and sweating forehead further discloses how ignorant you are about responsibility and care for human lives. If at all what you said is true, consider this. The person you blame to be trembling and sweating may not have been out of fear but out of the knowledge that next morning may witness 24 (reportedly 6 Pakistani and 18 Indian) cities wiped off the face of earth with millions dead. That would cause any sane and responsible person to shake and sweat but you would know nothing about that aspect of human beings because you have never held such an onerous position and responsibility. Responsibility and likely outcome of one’s actions makes a person of heart and mind to shake and sweat and that is not necessarily out of fear.
Then, you disclosed that nothing of the sort (an attack) was going to happen. May the nation ask, as to who gave you that privileged information and why did you believe more in information given to you by an unknown (to us) identity than what your own FM was giving you? Is this the level of trust across my country’s political divide or is it because you want to, mindlessly, toe the line of your disgraced political benefactor? When I was Commander of the fleet, there was an incident of fire onboard an oil tanker at the mouth of the harbour and I ordered all naval unit to put to sea for fear of the fire spreading. I was ‘shaking and sweating’ till the time the last unit had left harbour and were safe from risk of fire; but as I said, you would not know how responsibility bears on one’s mind because the only responsibility you have taken upon yourself appears to be to salvage your disgraced leader and I really pity you for that and shudder (shake and sweat) to think that you are holder of a lot of privileged information that may not have remained so!
MNS has been threatening and has recently indulged in divulging the privileged information that he acquired as three-time Prime Minister of Pakistan. This disgraced individual who is absconder from law has done so, purely in his frustration and disenchantment. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that ‘tumharay seenay mein both raaz hain’ but you have a moral and legal obligation not to divulge these for your personal gains or vendetta or for the benefit of the enemy or for the disadvantage of the country that made you its prime minister, thrice over. This episode leaves no doubt in any sane person’s mind that you, MNS, have no strength of character and that you have no concern for your nation’s wellbeing. That, your daughter also claims to have many secrets in her bosom is also a reflection of how careless you have been with the privileged information. Then there was another politician (read a tout of disgraced prime minister) who threatened of divulging more if his cohort was ‘hounded’ anymore. That, this person has been our defense minister (I think) depicts the poor political material we have, how unsafe is the privileged information in their hands and who they are loyal to rather than being loyal to the state. Then there is the talk of ‘we do not need to take a certificate of loyalty from anyone’ and this coming from someone who remains aligned to the parent party that to date claims not to have been a participant in the ‘sin’ of creation of Pakistan. True, but someone has to disprove the label of loyalty to be called disloyal, and many have!
This is not a trait of one political party alone. This streak runs through the entire political dispensation of Pakistan. They are careless, do not choose their words carefully and are often consumed by the thrill of being parliamentarians (at the whims of party czars alone). There was the case of providing a certain list by a certain person to a certain person containing names of certain individuals. The only defense the certain person had, was to say to try him. Very convenient, because the person who ordered the provision of list was dead, the person who provided the list was dead and the person who received the list was dead. Divulgence of privileged information, pure and simple. Our house of parliament has turned into a house of abuse and falsehood, under the roof inscribed with 100 names of Majestic Allah and then we have the temerity to call it a sacred house. Stop the BS and let us call it by the name that it deserves, a garbage dump.
The last aspect of the privileged information is that how much should be provided by the state to the privileged individuals who could and would divulge it in personal despondency or indeed the notion that the establishment does not share the most sensitive information with the political dispensation. Is the privileged information to be used for blackmailing the state as is being done by our political elite? Should divulgence of privileged information be allowed under the garb of immunity for things said in the parliament? Lastly, I am amused by the calls of a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ by our politicians. It simply implies that; they consider telling lies to be kosher unless a commission is formed wherein, they will tell the truth. On an official visit to South Africa, I requested for and was given a briefing on their Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I can say with that acquired knowledge and considering the depleted moral fiber of our politicians, that such a commission in Pakistan would generate a ‘lot of hot air but no light’, to steal the words of Late Margaret Thatcher.
PS. The things said are a generalization because, there must be some men of character amongst our politicians and they remain my hope.
